Horse blankets are well known among horsemen and horse owners. It is a rather large blanket draped over the horse's back and made of a heavy canvas material with a lining of softer material on the underside of the canvas. The blanket is of a generally rectangular shape. It has one strap sewn to one edge of the blanket and another strap sewn towards the edge of the other side. The strap sewn on the edge is much longer than the other one so that after the blanket is placed on the horse, the longer strap is drawn across the underbelly of the horse and meets the end of the other strap adjacent to the horse's flank and couples to the other coupling of the shorter strap, such that the buckle is in a vertical mode. The buckles used by horse blanket manufacturers are comprised of the standard T-shaped coupling and the curved U-shaped coupling. Most horse blankets have two sets of straps, the first set positioned behind the forelegs and the other set positioned in front of the hind legs of the animal. The longer strap contains an adjustment means for adjusting the length of either strap to make the straps and the blanket snug around the horse.
In cooler weather or when the horse is confined in a small area where it cannot move about freely to stay warm, the horse blanket is routinely used to avert discomfort to the horse or sickness of the animal. The horse blanket keeps the horse warm at night under these circumstances. The blanket protects the animal from the elements. As previously stated, the straps are tightened by the adjusting means on the longer strap. This serves quite well to prevent the uncoupling of the buckle, since both straps are firm initially. However, as the night wears on, the straps tend to loosen up for a variety of reasons and quite often the straps become so loose, and through various movements of the horse, the strap buckles become uncoupled. Once either strap buckle is uncoupled, the horse blanket hangs loosely on the horse, and as the horse moves about, and through his various bodily movements, the blanket may fall to the ground, causing damage to or soiling of the blanket from the horse stepping on it.
The problem presented was to find a way to prevent the strap buckle from uncoupling, when the blanket straps become loose around the horse. The problem was apparent and the present strap lock was invented to solve this problem.